I had a brief question whether it's possible to clone a complete Collab in an easier fashion than using the "Create a Collab" app with a custom configuration that individually copies the files and apps? If not, is this a feature that is being considered (e.g., such that students can clone an exercise Collab during a course)?

There is currently no such feature available, in the Collaboratory. The Collaboratory is now in "maintenance mode", meaning we are not going to implement new features as we are working on a version of the Collaboratory. We will investigate the feasibility of this feature with the new platform.